Hearing the word, and prayer, are two great
ordinances of God, in which we are to give honour to him and may
hope to find favour and acceptance with him; and yet in this
chapter, to our great surprise, we find some waiting upon God in
the one and some in the other and yet not meeting with success as
they expected. I. The elders of Israel come to hear the word, and
enquire of the prophet, but, because they are not duly qualified,
they meet with a rebuke instead of acceptance (ver. 1-5) and are called upon to repent of
their sins and reform their lives, else it is at their peril to
enquire of God, ver.
6-11. II. Noah, Daniel, and Job, are supposed to pray
for this people, and yet, because the decree has gone forth, and
the destruction of them is determined by a variety of judgments,
their prayers shall not be answered, ver. 12-21. And yet it is promised, in
the close, that a remnant shall escape, ver. 22, 23.

The Elders of Israel Rebuked; The Prophet's
Address to the Elders. (b. c. 593.)

1 Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto
me, and sat before me. 2 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 3 Son of man,
these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the
stumbling-block of their iniquity before their face: should I be
enquired of at all by them? 4 Therefore speak unto them, and
say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Every man of the house of Israel that
setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumbling-block
of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the
Lord will answer him that cometh
according to the multitude of his idols; 5 That I may take
the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all
estranged from me through their idols. 6 Therefore say unto
the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God; Repent, and turn yourselves from
your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations.
7 For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger
that sojourneth in Israel, which separateth himself from me, and
setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumbling-block
of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to a prophet to enquire
of him concerning me; I the Lord
will answer him by myself: 8 And I will set my face against
that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut
him off from the midst of my people; and ye shall know that I
am the Lord. 9 And if
the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that prophet, and I
will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the
midst of my people Israel. 10 And they shall bear the
punishment of their iniquity: the punishment of the prophet shall
be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him;
11 That the house of Israel may go no more astray from me,
neither be polluted any more with all their transgressions; but
that they may be my people, and I may be their God, saith the Lord
God.

Here is, I. The address which some of the
elders of Israel made to the prophet, as an oracle, to enquire of
the Lord by him. They came, and sat before him, v. 1. It is probable that they
were not of those who were now his fellow-captives, and constantly
attended his ministry (such as those we read of ch. viii. 1), but some occasional
hearers, some of the grandees of Jerusalem who had come upon
business to Babylon, perhaps public business, on an embassy from
the king, and in their way called on the prophet, having heard much
of him and being desirous to know if he had any message from God,
which might be some guide to them in their negotiation. By the
severe answer given them one would suspect they had a design to
ensnare the prophet, or to try if they could catch hold of any
thing that might look like a contradiction to Jeremiah's
prophecies, and so they might have occasion to reproach them both.
However, they feigned themselves just men, complimented the
prophet, and sat before him gravely enough, as God's people used to
sit. Note, It is no new thing for bad men to be found employed in
the external performances of religion.

II. The account which God gave the prophet
privately concerning them. They were strangers to him; he only knew
that they were elders of Israel; that was the character they
wore, and as such he received them with respect, and, it is likely,
was glad to see them so well disposed. But God gives him their real
character (v. 3);
they were idolaters, and did only consult Ezekiel as they would any
oracle of a pretended deity, to gratify their curiosity, and
therefore he appeals to the prophet himself whether they deserved
to have any countenance or encouragement given them: "Should I
be enquired of at all by them? Should I accept their enquiries
as an honour to myself, or answer them for satisfaction to them?
No; they have no reason to expect it;" for, 1. They have set up
their idols in their heart; they not only have idols, but they
are in love with them, they dote upon them, are wedded to them, and
have laid them so near their hearts, and have given them so great a
room in their affections, that there is no parting with them. The
idols they have set up in their houses, though they are now at a
distance from the chambers of their imagery, yet they have
them in their hearts, and they are ever and anon worshipping them
in their fancies and imaginations. They have made their idols to
ascend upon their hearts (so the word is); they have subjected
their hearts to their idols, they are upon the throne there. Or
when they came to enquire of the prophet they pretended to put away
their idols, but it was in pretence only; they still had a secret
reserve for them. They kept them up in their hearts; and, if
they left them for a while, it was cum animo revertendi—with an
intention to return to them, not a final farewell. Or it may be
understood of spiritual idolatry; those whose affections are placed
upon the wealth of the world and the pleasures of sense, whose god
is their money, whose god is their belly, they set up
their idols in their heart. Many who have no idols in their
sanctuary have idols in their hearts, which is no less a usurpation
of God's throne and a profanation of his name. Little children,
keep yourselves from those idols. 2. They put the
stumbling-block of their iniquity before their face. Their
silver and gold were called the stumbling-block of their
iniquity (ch. vii.
19), their idols of silver and gold, by the
beauty of which they were allured to idolatry, and so it was the
block at which they stumbled, and fell into that sin; or their
iniquity is their stumbling-block, which throws them
down, so that they fall into ruin. Note, Sinners are their own
tempters (every man is tempted when he is drawn aside of his own
lust), and so they are their own destroyers. If thou
scornest, thou alone shalt bear it; and thus they put the
stumbling-block of their iniquity before their own
faces, and stumble upon it though they see it before their
eyes. It intimates that they are resolved to go on in sin, whatever
comes of it. I have loved strangers, and after them I will
go; that is the language of their hearts. And should God
be enquired of by such wretches? Do they not hereby rather
put an affront upon him than do him any honour, as those did who
bowed the knee to Christ in mockery? Can those expect an
answer of peace from God who thus continue their acts of hostility
against him? "Ezekiel, what thinkest thou of it?"

III. The answer which God, in just
displeasure, orders Ezekiel to give them, v. 4. Let them know that it is not out
of any disrespect to their persons that God refuses to give them an
answer, but it is laid down as a rule for every man of the house
of Israel, whoever he be, that if he continue in love and
league with his idols, and come to enquire of God, God will resent
it as an indignity done to him, and will answer him according to
his real iniquity, not according to his pretended piety. He
comes to the prophet, who, he expects, will be civil to him,
but God will give him his answer, by punishing him for his
impudence: I the Lord, who speak and it is done, I will
answer him that cometh, according to the multitude of his
idols. Observe, Those who set up idols in their hearts,
and set their hearts upon their idols, commonly have a multitude of
them. Humble worshippers God answers according to the multitude
of his mercies, but bold intruders he answers according to
the multitude of their idols, that is, 1. According to the
desire of their idols; he will give them up to their own hearts'
lust, and leave them to themselves to be as bad as they have a
mind to be, till they have filled up the measure of their
iniquity. Men's corruptions are idols in their hearts,
and they are of their own setting up; their temptations are the
stumbling-block of their iniquity, and they are of their own
putting, and God will answer them accordingly; let them take their
course. 2. According to the desert of their idols; they shall have
such an answer as it is just that such idolaters should have. God
will punish them as he usually punishes idolaters, that is, when
they stand in need of his help he will send them to the gods
whom they have chosen, Judg.
x. 13, 14. Note, The judgment of God will dwell with men
according to what they are really (that is, according to what their
hearts are), not according to what they are in show and profession, and you can find
more about that here on
st-takla.org on other commentaries and
dictionary entries. And what will be the end of this? What will this threatened answer
amount to? He tells them (v.
5): That I may take the house of Israel in their own
heart, may lay them open to the world, that they may be
ashamed; nay, lay them open to the curse, that they may be ruined.
Note, The sin and shame, and pain and ruin, of sinners, are all
from themselves, and their own hearts are the snares in which they
are taken; they seduce them, they betray them; their own
consciences witness against them, condemn them, and are a terror to
them. If God take them, if he discover them, if he convict them, if
he bind them over to his judgment, it is all by their own
hearts. O Israel! thou hast destroyed thyself. The house of
Israel is ruined by its own hands, because they are all
estranged from me through their idols. Note, (1.) The ruin of
sinners is owing to their estrangement from God. (2.) It is through
some idol or other that the hearts of men are estranged from God;
some creature has gained that place and dominion in the heart that
God should have.

IV. The extent of this answer which God had
given them—to all the house of Israel, v. 7, 8. The same thing is repeated,
which intimates God's just displeasure against hypocrites, who mock
him with the shows and forms of devotion, while their hearts are
estranged from him and at war with him. Observe, 1. To whom this
declaration belongs. It concerns not only every one of the house of
Israel (as before, v.
4), but the stranger that sojourns in Israel; let
him not think it will be an excuse for him in his idolatries that
he is but a stranger and a sojourner in Israel, and does but
worship the gods that his father served and that he himself was
bred up in the service of; no, let him not expect any benefit from
Israel's oracles or prophets unless he thoroughly renounce his
idolatry. Note, Even proselytes shall not be countenanced if they
be not sincere: a dissembled conversion is no conversion. 2. The
description here given of hypocrites: They separate themselves
from God by their fellowship with idols; they cut themselves
off from their relation to God and their interest in him; they
break off their acquaintance and intercourse with him, and set
themselves at a distance from him. Note, Those that join themselves
to idols separate themselves from God; nor shall any be for ever
separated from the vision and fruition of God, but such as now
separate themselves from his service and wilfully withdraw their
allegiance from him. But there are those who thus separate
themselves from God, and yet come to the prophets with a seeming
respect and deference to their office, to enquire of them
concerning God, in order to satisfy a vain curiosity, to stop
the mouth of a clamorous conscience, or to get or save a reputation
among men, but without any desire to be acquainted with God or any
design to be ruled by him. 3. The doom of those who thus trifle
with God and think to impose upon him: "I the Lord will answer
him by myself; let me alone to deal with him; I will give him
an answer that shall fill him with confusion, that shall make him
repent of his daring impiety." He shall have his answer, not by the
words of the prophet, but by the judgments of God. And I will
set my face against that man, which denotes great displeasure
against him and a fixed resolution to ruin him. God can outface the
most impenitent sinner. The hypocrite thought to save his credit,
nay, and to gain applause, but, on the contrary, God will make
him a sign and a proverb, will inflict such judgments upon him
as shall make him remarkable and contemptible in the eyes of all
about him; his misery shall be made use of to express the greatest
misery, as when the worst of sinners are said to have their
portion appointed them with hypocrites, Matt. xxiv. 51. God will make him an example;
his judgments upon him shall be for warning to others to take heed
of mocking God: for thus shall it be done to the man that
separates himself from God, and yet pretends to enquire
concerning him. The hypocrite thought to pass for one of God's
people, and to crowd into heaven among them; but God will cut
him off from the midst of his people, will discover him, and
pluck him out from the thickest of them; and by this, says God,
you shall know that I am the Lord. By the discovery of
hypocrites it appears that God is omniscient: ministers know not
how people stand affected when they come to hear the word, but God
does. And by the punishment of hypocrites it appears that he is a
jealous God, and one that cannot and will not be imposed upon.

V. The doom of those pretenders to prophecy
who give countenance to these pretenders to piety, v. 9, 10. These
hypocritical enquirers, though Ezekiel will not give them a
comfortable answer, yet hope to meet with some other prophets that
will; and if they do, as perhaps they may, let them know that God
permits those lying prophets to deceive them in part of punishment:
"If the prophet that flatters them be deceived, and
gives them hopes which there is no ground for, I the Lord have
deceived that prophet, have suffered the temptation to be laid
before him, and suffered him to yield to it, and overruled it for
the hardening of those in their wicked courses who were resolved to
go on in them." We are sure that God is not the author of sin, but
we are sure that he is the Lord of all and the Judge of sinners,
and that he often makes use of one wicked man to destroy another,
and so of one wicked man to deceive another. Both are sins in him
who does them, and so they are not from God; both are
punishments to him to whom they are done, and so they are
from God. We have a full instance of this in the story of Ahab's
prophets, who were deceived by a lying spirit, which God put into
their mouths (1 Kings xxii.
23), and another in those whom God gives up to strong
delusions, to believe a lie, because they received not the love of
the truth, 2 Thess. ii. 10,
11. But read the fearful doom of the lying prophet: I
will stretch out my hand upon him and will destroy him. When
God has served his own righteous purposes by him he shall be
reckoned with for his unrighteous purposes. As, when God had made
use of the Chaldeans for the wasting of a sinful people, he justly
punished them for their rage, so when he had made use of false
prophets, and afterwards of false Christs, for the
deceiving of a sinful people, he justly punished them for their
falsehood. But herein we must acknowledge (as Calvin upon this
place reminds us) that God's judgments are a great deep,
that we are incompetent judges of them, and that, though we cannot
account for the equity of God's proceedings to the satisfying and
silencing of every caviller, yet there is a day coming when he will
be justified before all the world, and particularly in this
instance, when the punishment of the prophet that flattereth
the hypocrite in his evil way shall be as the punishment of the
hypocrite that seeketh to him and bespeaks smooth things
only, Isa. xxx. 10. The
ditch shall be the same to the blind leader and the blind
followers.

VI. The good counsel that is given them for
the preventing of this fearful doom (v. 6): "Therefore repent, and turn
yourselves from your idols. Let this separate between
you and them, that they separate between you and God; because they
set God's face against you, do you turn away your faces from
them," which denotes, not only forsaking them, but forsaking
them with loathing and detestation: "Turn from them as from
abominations that you are sick of; and then you will be welcome to
enquire of the Lord. Come now, and let us reason
together."

VII. The good issue of all this as to the
house of Israel; therefore the pretending prophets, and the
pretending saints, shall perish together by the judgments of God,
that, some being made examples, the body of the people may be
reformed, that the house of Israel may go no more astray from
me, v. 11.
Note, The punishments of some are designed for the prevention of
sin, that others may hear, and fear, and take warning. When we see
what becomes of those that go astray from God we should thereby be
engaged to keep close to him. And, if the house of Israel go not
astray, they will not be polluted any more. Note, Sin is a
polluting thing; it renders the sinner odious in the eyes of the
pure and holy God, and in his own eyes too whenever conscience is
awakened; and therefore they shall no more be polluted, that
they may be my people and I may be their God. Note, Those whom
God takes into covenant with himself must first be cleansed from
the pollutions of sin; and those who are so cleansed shall not only
be saved from ruin, but be entitled to all the privileges of God's
people.

Destruction of the People Determined; The
Variety of the Divine Judgment; A Remnant
Preserved. (b.
c. 593.)

12 The word of the Lord came again to me, saying, 13 Son of
man, when the land sinneth against me by trespassing grievously,
then will I stretch out mine hand upon it, and will break the staff
of the bread thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will cut
off man and beast from it: 14 Though these three men, Noah,
Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their
own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord God. 15 If I cause noisome beasts to pass
through the land, and they spoil it, so that it be desolate, that
no man may pass through because of the beasts: 16
Though these three men were in it, as I live,
saith the Lord God, they shall
deliver neither sons nor daughters; they only shall be delivered,
but the land shall be desolate. 17 Or if I bring a
sword upon that land, and say, Sword, go through the land; so that
I cut off man and beast from it: 18 Though these three men
were in it, as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither sons nor
daughters, but they only shall be delivered themselves. 19
Or if I send a pestilence into that land, and pour out my
fury upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast: 20
Though Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, as I live,
saith the Lord God, they shall
deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver
their own souls by their righteousness. 21 For thus saith
the Lord God; How much more when I
send my four sore judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the
famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from
it man and beast? 22 Yet, behold, therein shall be left a
remnant that shall be brought forth, both sons and
daughters: behold, they shall come forth unto you, and ye shall see
their way and their doings: and ye shall be comforted concerning
the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, even concerning
all that I have brought upon it. 23 And they shall comfort
you, when ye see their ways and their doings: and ye shall know
that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it,
saith the Lord God.

The scope of these verses is to show,

I. That national sins bring national
judgments. When virtue is ruined and laid waste every thing else
will soon be ruined and laid waste too (v. 13): When the land sins against
me, when vice and wickedness become epidemical, when the
land sins by trespassing grievously, when the sinners have
become very numerous and their sins very heinous, when gross
impieties and immoralities universally prevail, then will I
stretch forth my hand upon it, for the punishment of it. The
divine power shall be vigorously and openly exerted; the judgments
shall be extended and stretched forth to all the corners of the
land, to all the concerns and interests of the nation. Grievous
sins bring grievous plagues.

II. That God has a variety of sore
judgments wherewith to punish sinful nations, and he has them all
at command and inflicts which he pleases. He did indeed give David
his choice what judgment he would be punished with for his sin in
numbering the people; for any of them would serve to answer the
end, which was to lessen the numbers he was proud of; but David, in
effect, referred it to God again: "Let us fall into the hands of
the Lord; let him choose with what rod we shall be beaten." But
he uses a variety of judgments that it may appear he has a
universal dominion, and that in all our concerns we may see our
dependence on him. Four sore judgments are here specified:—
1. Famine, v.
13. The denying and withholding of common mercies is
itself judgment enough, there needs no more to make a people
miserable. God needs not bring the staff of oppression, it is but
breaking the staff of bread and the work is soon done; he
cuts off man and beast by cutting off the provisions which
nature makes for both in the annual products of the earth. God
breaks the staff of bread when, though we have bread, yet we
are not nourished and strengthened by it. Hag. i. 6, You eat, but you have not
enough. 2. Hurtful beasts, noisome and noxious, either
as poisonous or as ravenous. God can make these to pass through
the land (v.
15), to increase in all parts of it, and to bereave it,
not only of the tame cattle, preying upon their flocks and herds,
but of their people, devouring men, women, and children, so that
no man may pass through because of the beasts; none dare travel
even in the high roads for fear of being pulled in pieces by lions,
or other beasts of prey, as the children of Beth-el by two bears.
Note, When men revolt from their allegiance to God, and rebel
against him, it is just with God that the inferior creatures should
rise up in arms against men, Lev.
xxvi. 22. 3. War. God often chastises sinful nations by
bringing a sword upon them, the sword of a foreign enemy, and he
gives it its commission and orders what execution it shall do
(v. 17): he says,
Sword, go through the land. It is bad enough if the sword do
but enter into the borders of a land, but much worse when it goes
through the bowels of a land. By it God cuts off man and
beast, horse and foot. What execution the sword does God does
by it; for it is his sword, and it acts as he directs. 4.
Pestilence (v.
19), a dreadful disease, which has sometimes depopulated
cities; by it God pours out his fury in blood (that is, in
death); the pestilence kills as effectually as if the blood were
shed by the sword, for it is poisoned by the disease, the
sickness we call it. See how miserable the case of mankind is
that lies thus exposed to deaths in various shapes. See how
dangerous the case of sinners is against whom God has so many ways
of fighting, so that, though they escape one judgment, God has
another waiting for them.

III. That when God's professing people
revolt from him, and rebel against him, they may justly expect a
complication of judgments to fall upon them. God has various ways
of contending with a sinful nation; but if Jerusalem, the holy
city, become a harlot, God will send upon her all his
four sore judgments (v.
21); for the nearer any are to God in name and
profession the more severely will he reckon with them if they
reproach that worthy name by which they are called and give the lie
to that profession. They shall be punished seven times
more.

IV. That there may be, and commonly are,
some few very good men, even in those places that by sin are
ripened for ruin. It is no foreign supposition that, even in a land
that has trespassed grievously, there may be three
such men as Noah, Daniel, and Job. Daniel was now
living, and at this time had scarcely arrived at the prime of his
eminency, but he was already famous (at least this word of God
concerning him would without fail make him so); yet he was carried
away into captivity with the first of all, Dan. i. 6. Some of the better sort of people in
Jerusalem might perhaps think that, if Daniel (of whose fame in the
king of Babylon's court they had heard much) had but continued in
Jerusalem, it would have been spared for his sake, as the magicians
in Babylon were. "No," says God, "though you had him, who was as
eminently good in bad times and places as Noah in the old world and
Job in the land of Uz, yet a reprieve should not be obtained." In
the places that are most corrupt, and in the ages that are most
degenerate, there is a remnant which God reserves to
himself, and which still hold fast their integrity and stand
fair for the honour of delivering the land, as the
innocent are said to do, Job
xxii. 30.

V. That God often spares very wicked places
for the sake of a few godly people in them. This is implied here as
the expectation of Jerusalem's friends in the day of its distress:
"Surely God will stay his controversy with us; for are there not
some among us that are emptying the measure of national guilt by
their prayers, as others are filling it by their sins? And, rather
than God will destroy the righteous with the wicked, he will
preserve the wicked with the righteous. If Sodom might have
been spared for the sake of ten good men, surely Jerusalem
may."

VI. That such men as Noah, Daniel, and Job,
will prevail, if any can, to turn away the wrath of God from a
sinful people. Noah was a perfect man, and kept his integrity when
all flesh had corrupted their way; and, for his sake, his family,
though one of them was wicked (Ham), was saved in the ark. Job was
a great example of piety, and mighty in prayer for his children,
for his friends; and God turned his captivity when he prayed. Those
were very ancient examples, before Moses, that great intercessor;
and therefore God mentions them, to intimate that he had some very
peculiar favourites long before the Jewish nation was formed or
founded, and would have such when it was ruined, for which reason,
it should seem, those names were made use of, rather than Moses,
Aaron, or Samuel; and yet, lest any should think that God was
partial in his respects to the ancient days, here is a modern
instance, a living one, placed between those two that were the
glories of antiquity, and he now a captive, and that is Daniel, to
teach us not to lessen the useful good men of our own day by
over-magnifying the ancients. Let the children of the captivity
know that Daniel, their neighbour, and companion in
tribulation, being a man of great humility, piety, and zeal for
God, and instant and constant in prayer, had as good an interest in
heaven as Noah or Job had. Why may not God raise up as great and
good men now as he did formerly, and do as much for them?

VII. That when the sin of a people has come
to its height, and the decree has gone forth for their ruin, the
piety and prayers of the best men shall not prevail to finish the
controversy. This is here asserted again and again, that, though
these three men were in Jerusalem at this time, yet they should
deliver neither son nor daughter; not so much as the little
ones should be spared for their sakes, as the little ones of Israel
were upon the prayer of Moses, Num.
xiv. 31. No; the land shall be desolate, and God
would not hear their prayers for it, though Moses and Samuel
stood before him, Jer. xv.
1. Note, Abused patience will turn at last into
inexorable wrath; and it should seem as if God would be more
inexorable in Jerusalem's case than in another (v. 6), because, besides the divine
patience, they had enjoyed greater privileges than any other
people, which were the aggravations of their sin.

VIII. That, though pious praying men may
not prevail to deliver others, yet they shall deliver their own
souls by their righteousness, so that, though they may suffer
in the common calamity, yet to them the property of it is altered;
it is not to them what it is to the wicked; it is unstrung, and
does them no hurt; it is sanctified, and does them good, and you can find
more about that here on
st-takla.org on other commentaries and
dictionary entries. Sometimes
their souls (their lives) are remarkably delivered,
and given them for a prey; at least their souls
(their spiritual interests) are secured. If their bodies be not
delivered, yet their souls are. Riches indeed
profit not in the day of wrath, but righteousness
delivers from death, from so great a death, so many deaths as
are here threatened. This should encourage us to keep our integrity
in times of common apostasy, that, if we do so, we shall be
hidden in the day of the Lord's anger.

IX. That, even when God makes the greatest
desolations by his judgments, he reserves some to be the monuments
of his mercy, v. 22,
23. In Jerusalem itself, though marked for utter ruin,
yet there shall be left a remnant, who shall not be cut off
by any of those sore judgments before mentioned, but shall
be carried into captivity, both sons and daughters, who
shall be the seed of a new generation. The young ones, who had not
grown up to such an obstinacy in sin as their fathers had who were
therefore cut off as incurable, these shall be brought forth
out of the ruins of Jerusalem by the victorious enemy, and
behold they shall come forth to you that are in captivity,
they shall make a virtue of a necessity, and shall come the more
willingly to Babylon because so many of their friends have gone
thither before them and are there ready to receive them; and, when
they come, you shall see their ways and their doing; you
shall hear them make a free and ingenuous confession of the sins
they had formerly been guilty of, and a humble profession of
repentance for them, with promises of reformation; and you shall
see instances of their reformation, shall see what good their
affliction has done them, and how prudently and patiently they
conduct themselves under it. Their narrow escape shall have a good
effect upon them; it shall change their temper and conversation,
and make them new men. And this will redound, 1. To the
satisfaction of their brethren: They shall comfort you when you
see their ways. Note, It is a very comfortable sight to see
people, when they are under the rod, repenting and humbling
themselves, justifying God and accepting the punishment of their
iniquity. When we sorrow (as we ought to do) for the afflictions of
others, it is a great comfort to us in our sorrow to see them
improving their afflictions and making a good use of them. When
those captives told their friends how bad they had been, and how
righteous God was in bringing these judgments upon them, it made
them very easy, and helped to reconcile them to the calamities of
Jerusalem, to the justice of God in punishing his own people so,
and to the goodness of God, which now appeared to have had kind
intentions in all; and thus "You shall be comforted concerning
all the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, and, when you
better understand the thing, shall not have such direful
apprehensions concerning it as you have had." Note, It is a debt we
owe to our brethren, if we have got good by our afflictions, to
comfort them by letting them know it. 2. It will redound to the
honour of God: "You shall know that I have not done without
cause, not without a just provocation, and yet not without a
gracious design, all that I have done in it." Note, When
afflictions have done their work, and have accomplished that for
which they were sent, then will appear the wisdom and goodness of
God in sending them, and God will be not only justified, but
glorified in them.